Easter

The Easter Bunny brought Callie some paint...and she is enjoying it. And not making too big of a mess in the process. You can see her painting here.

Reagan

99.9% of the time, Reagan is the most laid back, happy, easy going baby ever.  But watch out for that other 0.01%.  It is fierce.  Such as her determination not to eat from a spoon at times.  She will shake her head no so violently you would think it would hurt.  Last time she did this it was over a bite of my blizzard.  Or if you are carrying her and she wants down...it's going to take all your efforts to hold onto all 19 lbs of her because she is going to fight you. And most importantly, don't take her food away.  She is always the last one done eating dinner.  I was told she threw a royal fit when Grandma took her burrito away at Taco Time last week.  Apparently she wasn't done with it.

Currently, she doesn't play with any of her toys.  Unless they are put away in some sort of container.  Then the only way she "plays" with them is to pull them all out and dump them on the floor. 

She puts everything in her mouth and pulls up on everything to walk around.  A really bad combination when in the bathroom.  The toilet is the perfect height to pull up on, and then there is this really fun water to splash in.  She has dumped things into the toilet as well.  Let's just say that we will be going to the hardware store and buying a new toilet seat that has a lid as soon as we can.  The other day was particularly bad.  She pooped out a googly eye in the morning, splashed in the toilet, ate dirt, and chewed on a slug.  This kid is into things, and she finds them quickly. 

I think she is going to keep us on our toes!

Summer Catch Up

Looking back, I realized I have a ton of pictures I haven't uploaded, so here is a random smattering of pictures from the summer.

Dad brought home some silly string from work.  According to Callie, it was pretty silly! 

Trying so hard to blow hard enough to make the seeds spread...not quite there yet. 

 First time on the slip and slide. 

 

 She enjoyed it, and went on it several more times over the summer.  Each time was the same.  Walking down the slip and slide.  She even got Mike on it once.  He showed her how to slide, but she wasn't going to do it.

 

 We went to the Children's Museum for Monorail Day.  Callie insisted her baby, Arianna, came along and here they are listing to the story and learning about the Monorail. We got to tour under the Monorail and watch the engineers change a tire.  We also learned lots of random facts about the Monorail such as it costs about $0.90 for the electricity to run it one way, they use tractor tires to "hug" the rail, and the Monorail employs about 25 people.  Callie got to honk the horn too!

 Reagan seriously checking something out at the "beach park."  A bit of contemplation before she decided to put it in her mouth.

 

 Reagan's first time in the wading pool at Volunteer Park.  I think it was a success.

 

 Another trip to the "beach park," aka Seahurst Park.  And yes, she's pretty cute and knows it.

 

 The rain came down last night, so we had to go outside and splash in the puddles.  One before dinner and once after.  I don't know what was more exciting, the splashing or the fact that she got to be in the middle of the street.

 

After all the jumping, her and Mike had a mini scream fest.  We have been working really hard on learning what are good noised to make inside and what are good outside noises.  She really wanted to scream, so outside they went.  And boy did they scream!  And came in super happy.  I'm not sure who enjoyed it more.

 

 



Reagan...

Reagan is almost 10 months old.  At her 9 month check up she weighed 18 lbs 10 oz.  I can't remember how tall she was.  She was in about the 60% for height and 50% for weight.  Her current interests are anything that is not a toy.  She had plenty of toys and has no desire to play with any of them except for a car every now and then.  It took forever, and a lot of butt scooting, but she finally decided to crawl and furniture cruise in the same week.  She is all over the place now. 

Reagan is highly interested in food.  She eats everything, and lots of it.  It is common for her to be the last one eating dinner.  It could be because it is really hard to eat steak with only 4 teeth and so you really have to try and shred it.  She only wants to eat things she can feed herself.  She rarely will eat from a spoon.  Her favorite foods are meat in any form (steak, hamburger, chicken) and graham crackers.  The only food she can feed herself that she has turned down so far is olives...and that was only the first time she was offered.  She has turned down just about everything on a spoon, including ice cream.  Which leads to her communication skills. 

Reagan knows how to shake her head no.  Violently.  Like when I tried to offer her ice cream.  Or you are putting her in her car seat when she doesn't want to.  Or putting her jammies on at bed time.  She also says "Hi Dad" when she sees Mike, "mama" is yelled when she wants me to pick her up off the floor immediately, we think we may have heard something close to Callie a few times, and she signs all done and more, though it is usually more.  She also waves bye.

Ocean Trips

We have made two trips to the ocean in the last month.  Once to Long Beach and once to Ocean Shores.  The girls have loved the beach and playing in the sand.  After the first trip Mike and I looked at each other and couldn't believe we had gone all summer without making it to the beach.  Which is what caused the second trip.  There was lots of digging and lots of sand.  Did I mention that there was sand everywhere? 

Reagan's first beach experience.  I think she likes it.

 

Crawling in the sand.

 

 Fun finding everything in the bucket.

 Something serious is going on.  I'm terrified what they are going to be able to come up with together in a few years. 

 Callie wanted to try and drive.  After Reagan and I got out, Mike let her steer.  There were several "crashes" accompanied by sound effects from Callie. 

 Riding a "silly bike."  In case you were wondering, those things are REALLY hard to pedal.  It was a good thing the rental was only for an hour.  I don't think our legs could have gone longer.

 Naked baby in the sand!

 And this is why.

 Coming out from the grass and being "camouflaged."

 Working hard to dig a big hole.

And she got there with a little help from Dad.

Happy, Silly Heart Dance

Last night while having a campout on the back deck, Mike and Callie had this precious conversation:
Mike:  Callie, you know what...I really love you.
Callie: I really love you too Dad.
Mike: Oh, thank you.   That makes me feel special when you tell my that you love me.
Callie: When you tell me that you love me, it makes my heart do a happy, silly, silly, heart dance!

I love it...don't know where these things come from, but they keep us entertained.

The other night we were eating dinner in a smaller restaurant.  We were the only couple with children.  Rather loudly, Callie shared these precious words of wisdom out of nowhere.  "When I was a baby I pooped in my diaper every day.  I pooped a lot.  Sometimes I pooped so much I got poop on things."  No idea where this one came from either...we have not told her any poop stories.

A couple of other oldies, but goodies that I don't want to forget.

Just past two years old, Callie called Mike's glasses his "wake up sunglasses" as he only wears them when he first gets up or just before bed. 

Around 1.5, cinnamon was necessary on every food, and she called it "Sprinkle syrup."

Just after 2, when Callie started wearing underwear, she first called Mike's boxers his "big girl underwear."  He then quickly progressed to wearing "Big boy panties."  Not sure which is better, but equally adorable. 

Summer!

Summer is here and we are loving it!

 Fun on the swings. 

 

Yes, I did try to eat the rocks and they are delicious.

We started weekly picnics to someplace new.  Our first was to the Ballard Locks and it was a success. 

Callie's First Ballet Recital

Callie had her first ballet recital.  She was so excited to dance on stage.  As we were leaving I asked her what her favorite part was.  She said "First ask me what I didn't like." So I did, and she didn't like when it was over. 

 Getting her eyes "colored."

 

 Dancing on stage.

 

Her turn to be on stage by herself.

 



It's blurry, but she's so stinkin cute!

Miss Jennifer said to stop on the "x" so I'm going to! 

And I'm supposed to do an arabesque here.

 



Backstage waiting to go on for the final bow.

Gymnastics

Callie LOVES gymnastics.  As in she gets giddy as we enter the parking lot.  This is seriously her happy place. 

 

 

4th of July

We've had a great and relaxing 4th of July.  We walked down to watch the Normandy Park parade.  It is such a great, low key parade that still lets cars throw candy for the kids.  Callie loved the "silly, silly cars" which would be any car that was decorated with streamers, balloons, or flags. One car even threw money to her! 

After the parade, we came home and tested out some of the pop its while Greg and Nancy were here.  They were a hit.  She loved them and figured out she could throw a whole handful at once for much more effect.  We had only bought two boxes, so we ended up taking the money she got from the parade and walking up to the firework stand to buy some more.  She wanted to wait until it was darker to try them and the rest of the sparklers.

After going through most of the sparklers, Mike and Callie prepared for a camp out downstairs to wait until it got even darker for the last of them.  We'll see if she makes it.

Lighting a turtle with Dad...this one was not a hit.  It was too loud. 

Action series of throwing the pop its.

Sly little look...did you see what I just did? 

Fascinated by the sparklers. 

We had told her not to throw the pop its towards people, but I really wanted to get a picture of her throwing them.  After explaining that is was okay to throw them towards me because I was far enough away, she said "I can go like this!" and set them on the ground and stomped out.